The promising young Indian cricketer and left-handed batsman who was part of Kolkata Knight Riders in the recently concluded Indian Premier League Nitish Rana got engaged to his girlfriend Saachi Marwah on Sunday.

The first week of Indian Premier League was full of excitement – from last ball finish to the fastest fifty in the history of the Indian Premier League – the first week had it all. Let’s see some of the memorable moments from the first week of the eleventh edition of the IPL.

Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan was seen having a good time with MS Dhoni’s wife Sakshi Dhoni and her daughter Ziva during the Indian Premier League match between Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders on Tuesday.

The eleventh edition of Indian Premier League is just around the corner and the management of each franchise will be analysing their best playing eleven of the team. All-rounders play an important part in any team’s success and that was one of the reasons every team during the IPL auctions spent heavily on all-rounders. Let’s have a look at best all-rounders from each team.

The eleventh season of the Indian Premier League is just around the corner and fans are all excited to see their favourite stars back in their favourite tournament. The extravaganza will kick-off on April 7 and will see the return of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals after a gap of two years.

The tenth season of the Indian Premier League is just around the corner and fans are all excited to see their favourite stars back in their favourite tournament. The extravaganza will kick-off on April 7 and will see the return of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals after a gap of two years.
Wicket-keepers are the key member of any team. However, they are mostly underrated but they can be the biggest difference in the strength and weakness of any team. Let us look at first choice wicketkeepers of every franchise.

Kolkata Knight Riders Sunil Narine faced another storm when his bowling action was reported once again in his career. He was reported for action during the ongoing Pakistan Super League Twenty 20 tournament in UAE, according to the officials.

The Orange Cap is a cricket award presented to the leading run scorer in the Indian Premier League. It was introduced on 25 April 2008, a week after the start of the inaugural season of the IPL. The batsman with most runs in the tournament during the course of the season would wear the Orange Cap while fielding, with the overall leading run-scorer at the conclusion of the tournament winning the actual Orange Cap award on the day of the season’s final.

Team India’s left-handed batsman Shikhar Dhawan was retained by Sunrisers Hyderabad after they opted to use the Right to Match card for him in the Indian Premier League 2018 auction on Saturday in Bengaluru.

Bollywood superstar and Kolkata Knight Riders owner Shah Rukh Khan is reportedly set to buy a team in the South African domestic T20 competition if reports in the media are to be believed. He already owns two T20 franchises; Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League and Trinbago Knight Riders in the Caribbean Premier League. He will reportedly buy a newly formed franchise.

Shah Rukh’s interest in South Africa’s T20 league was reported by the Mumbai-based daily Mumbai Mirror. The report states that the South African board has been looking to expand their ventures in India and if Shah Rukh Khan indeed becomes one of the owners of the eight new franchises, they will go a long way in achieving their goals. The owners of the eight new teams will be announced at the Lords Cricket Stadium in London on June 19.

Gautam Gambhir is eyeing a new role for himself in the upcoming Tamil Nadu Premier League. He is expected to play the role of a mentor for the first time in TNPL 2017. The left-handed batsman who has won two IPL titles told TOI that he is talks with different franchises and the final decision is still to be taken. He was quoted as saying to TOI, “Yes, I am in talks with a few franchises for a mentoring role.” He also made it clear that he will not be playing in the tournament.

Gautam Gambhir has played a key role in various successes of the Indian cricket team as well as the Kolkata Knight Riders in the past. He is also thought of as a natural leader and will no doubt be a major coup for any TNPL franchise which would be able to rope in. The report also states that Gambhir has presented his case to various franchises and has demanded an in-depth role which will give him some valuable inputs in the franchise and doesn’t want a role only for marketing purposes.

Favourite colours among men are limited to something like blue, white, red or black. But West Indies and Kolkata Knight Riders spinner Sunil Narine’s favourite colour is actually pink; in fact, his whole house is pink. Rovman Powell recently called out Narine’s obsession for the pink colour in a hilarious video where he practically roasted the cricketer and dedicated a ‘winkfie’ to him.

Posting a video on Instagram, Powell revealed Narine’s secret, the post read: “@ravipowell52 shares a secret about @sunilnarine24 that you’ve probably never heard before! Watch his #Winkfie ?? and find out.” Powell says, “The man went as far as having a pink house. Which man have a pink house dude?”

KKR has had a good season even if they lost against Mumbai Indians in Qualifier 2. Their performance was on par and showed no signs of backing down. Narine proved his worth in KKR, giving the team some much needed support and giving cricket fans a storm of entertainment when he appeared as batsman. The cricketer managed to score 224 runs in 16 games with a strike-rate of 172.30. His highest score was 54. Narine also claimed 10 wickets in this year’s IPL, but his batting performance was the bigger stunner.

It has all come down to a heavyweight clash between Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiant in the final of the 2017 edition of the VIVO IPL. The battle between the two Maharashtra rivals is an apt final as the two teams have been the best sides in the tournament finishing in the top two spots in the group stages. So it promises to be a match for the ages in the final in the history of the IPL.

The two teams have already clashed three times this season, with Pune winning all the three matches. Mumbai will no be desperate to reverse the trend which has developed this season and would be eager to prove that Rising Pune Supergiant isn’t their bogey team. Both teams will be heavily dependent on a certain set of players to deliver the goods for them in the big clash at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Hyderabad.

The stage is set for the tenth final of IPL. Mumbai Indians will be eyeing their third title win and Rising Pune Supergiant, on the other hand, will want to end the season and their IPL journey with a IPL trophy in their hands.

While they will try and put their best effort on the field to get to the glory, we look back at all the nine finals and the winners in the last 9 years of IPL history.

IPL 2008, Rajasthan Royals vs Chennai Super Kings: These two finalists deserved to be in the finals. One was expected for the kind of team it was. The other was not for the kind of team it was. Rajasthan Royals turned the tables in their first IPL journey with a team full of low-key players. CSK batting first could manage163 runs in 20 overs for the loss of 5 wickets. At 42 for 3, RR were nearing a possible end. But Yusuf Pathan willowed 56 off 39 balls to rescue them before Sohail Tanveer hit the winning run off the last ball.

Kolkata Knight Riders lost the second qualifier to Mumbai Indians 6 wickets in what was a one-sided game where the table-toppers dominated throughout. KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir took to Twitter to apologise to his fans for showing a weak show on Friday night.

He wrote on his Twitter: “Thanks for being a wonderful support for Kolkata Knight Riders, but for you all this journey won’t have been fun. Tried our best may be our best wasn’t good enough.”

Jaydev Unadkat has lived his dream in IPL 2017. He has bowled his heart out, taken wickets, soaked runs and risen as a star by taking a match-winning hat-trick for RPS.

In all these years, we ask ourselves, that where was he? What wrong had he done not to be given a long run in IPL before this game? Speaking on the same to Mid-Day, Unadkat said, “I didn’t get the support that I needed from past captains as well in all the IPL teams that I played. So, I knew from the start itself that whatever chance I get, whether at the start of the season or during the later stages, I need to capitalise.”

Unadkat was a part of Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore before joining the Pune franchise.

The 25-year-old said that they hunger in him to do well in IPL grew with each year. he said, “Probably, that hunger to do well, is what was different from the past couple of seasons. The first match was important this year, and after doing well there I just got the confidence and just picked up from there. I also got good support from the management, from Flem (head coach Stephen Fleming) and Smithy (skipper Steven Smith), so I can say that the season has been brilliant for me so far.”

The tenth edition of the VIVO Indian Premier League is drawing towards a close. It has been another eventful two months of thrilling action on the field with some intense cricket being played that has captivated and enthralled the fans to no bounds.

The IPL is one of the biggest stages for up and coming talents to showcase their skills while it also captures the imagination of the viewers by fielding some of the biggest names in the international cricket scenes together. It is obvious that the likes of Virat Kohli, AB De Villiers, David Warner, Glenn Maxwell etc., the superstars, hog all the limelight, but there are players that who go about their work away from the spotlight, players who are equally vital to their team but whose contributions often go under the radar.

The tenth edition of the VIVO Indian Premier League is drawing towards a close. It has been another eventful two months of thrilling action on the field with some intense cricket being played that has captivated and enthralled the fans to no bounds.

The IPL is one of the biggest stages for up and coming talents to showcase their skills while it also captures the imagination of the viewers by fielding some of the biggest names in the international cricket scenes together. It is obvious that the likes of Virat Kohli, AB De Villiers, David Warner, Glenn Maxwell etc., the superstars, hog all the limelight, but there are players that who go about their work away from the spotlight, players who are equally vital to their team but whose contributions often go under the radar.

Mumbai Indians with a highly professional performance with both the ball and the bat have beaten Kolkata Knight Riders in the second qualifier of the 10th edition of the VIVO IPL to reach the final, where they will face off against their nemesis, Rising Pune Supergiant. They chased down Kolkata Knight Riders’ score of 107 in just 14.3 overs with six wickets remaining in their hand.

Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to field first, which proved out to be a perfect call by the skipper. Mumbai Indians bowlers, especially Karn Sharma were hugely impressive, never allowing the Kolkata Knight Riders batsmen to get their eye in. They picked up wickets at regular interval from the go and Kolkata never looked to be in command at any stage during their batting performance. Karn Sharma justified the team management’s call to persist with him ahead of Harbhajan Singh, ending with excellent bowling figures of 4-16 in his four overs. He was ably supported by Jasprit Bumrah and Mitchell Johnson, who respectively picked up 3 and 2 wickets in their spell. Only Ishank Jaggi and Suryakumar Yadav could come to grips with Mumbai’s bowling, scoring 28 and 31 respectively. In the end, Kolkata were bowled out for a meager score of only 107 in only 18.5 overs.

Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma has won the toss and elected to field first in the second qualifier of the 10th edition of VIVO IPL between Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru. Mumbai Indians have made one change to their lineup bringing in Mitchell Johnson for the Mitchell McLenaghan. Kolkata Knight Riders have made two changes bringing in Colin de Grandhomme and Ankit Rajpoot for Yusuf Pathan and Trent Boult.

Kolkata Knight Riders after conquering Sunrisers Hyderabad and mother nature in the eliminator against Sunrisers Hyderabad will have to start from the scratch again to get a shot at Rising Pune Supergiant in the final of the 10th edition of the IPL. They will feel confident about beating Mumbai Indians in Bangalore having already got a taste of the conditions at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium in their match against Hyderabad.

Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad played their Indian Premier League Eliminator after a three-hour delay due to rain. The match ended at about 1 to 2 AM and we wonder what could possibly be going through the minds of the cricketers as they weary-eyed bowled another over, or the supporters who probably went to sleep mid-match. Here are 5 things that could have been happening around the world at 2 AM while the teams battled it out during their ‘sleepover’:

1) Wenger gets the boot after Arsenal owners make their judgement: In a surprise incident on the other side of the globe, Wenger finally becomes history when Arsenal heads decide that the time has come to take out the old and bring in the new. Poor Wenger, he will never see the light of day.

2) Kentucky Derby Horse ‘Insomnia’ put to sleep: #3 in a USA derby race wins the competition, laying false the accusations that it was not up to standard to other horses. Sadly, however, the horse had to be put down due to the disease associated with its namesake.

3) Trump fires newly employed Head of FBI: After firing the head of the FBI already, Trump shoots out another at his firing range, after the second head was also accused of investigating Trump.

4) Manchester United head home after game: Manchester United head home after their game against Southampton, but don’t sleep while they travel back. The game, like the eliminator, was a drowsy affair at best.

5) Modi cracks down on drug cartels in Delhi: Finally, at home and at the very same time, Modi finds out one more missing link in his fight against the underworld of India. The police detain seven suspects while accidentally killing twelve innocents.

Kolkata Knight Riders after conquering Sunrisers Hyderabad and mother nature in the eliminator against Sunrisers Hyderabad will have to start from the scratch again to get a shot at Rising Pune Supergiant in the final of the 10th edition of the IPL. They will feel confident about beating Mumbai Indians in Bangalore having already got a taste of the conditions at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium in their match against Hyderabad.

Mumbai Indians after a brilliant start to the tournament, have lost a bit of steam at the end of the group stages. They squandered a golden opportunity back in their home conditions of Mumbai, coming up with a poor batting display to lose the match against Rising Pune Supergiant.

They will, however, take solace from the fact that they enjoy a brilliant overall record against the Kolkata Knight Riders and have already beaten them twice this season.

Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir has praised their opponents in the eliminator Sunrisers Hyderabad claiming that they are a champion team. Gambhir also praised the drainage system of the M. Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore which made it possible for the game to happen in Bangalore despite heavy rains.

Gambhir took to his Twitter to point out the turnaround in fortunes of Kolkata Knight Riders against Sunrisers Hyderabad in their IPL qualifier. Gambhir tweeted:

Nature played a brutal trick on Sunrisers Hyderabad as they got knocked out by Kolkata Knight Riders in an exciting Eliminator that took place in Bengaluru. With a lot of predictions for rain, it finally showed its face after the innings break where Sunrisers Hyderabad posted 128 on the board. It was a pretty average score as the par score at the M.Chinnaswamy stadium has been 140. But as luck had it for SRH, they only had 48 runs to defend, via D/L method and after some initial stutter, Gautam Gambhir provided the much-needed stability and the Kolkata-outfit will now clash against Mumbai Indians in Qualifier 2 in Bengaluru on March 19th.

After winning the toss, Gautam Gambhir chose to field first and both the teams opted to make a massive four changes to their playing XI. Yet again, Shikhar Dhawan failed to make any impact in a crucial game but David Warner and Kane Williamson went along doing their jobs on what was yet another tricky Bangalore pitch. Some brilliant bowling and some pretty average lower middle order batting only meant SRH posted 128 on the total, a score that seemed to be less.

Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar has slammed the IPL and the BCCI for it’s ridiculous rules of not having a reserve day for playoffs despite there being a break of 1 day between the first and the second eliminator and both the matches being played at the same venue. Fellow panelist on Extraa Innings T20 on Sony ESPN Aakash Chopra and host Gaurav Kapur also agreed with the Indian legend.

The match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders has been delayed by rain. The rules say that full 20 overs of the Kolkata innings can be played if the match starts before 11.52 p.m. If the match starts before 12.58, 5-overs a side will be permitted and 1.20 is the cut-off time for the super-over to be brought into play.

Shikhar Dhawan has yet again got out cheaply, during a crucial Eliminator match against Kolkata Knight Riders today in the Indian Premier League 2017. Struggling against Umesh Yadav’s express pace, Shikhar perished to a short ball, getting a top edge which was easily pounced upon by Robin Uthappa. Even though the Shikhar Dhawan-David Warner combination has been one of the best in the IPL business, it’s during the playoffs time that Shikhar has consistently faltered.

Here are Shikhar Dhawan’s numbers in the playoffs he’s played throughout during his IPL tenure. 28 (27), 0 (4), 10 (10), 33 (39), 0(8), 12 (9), 5 (12) & 11 (13). Only one innings he’s played where Shikhar Dhawan has crossed past 30 runs in just one of the eight innings and that’s a pretty shambolic number for someone who has the responsibility of opening the innings in a crucial knock-out game.

Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir has won the toss and elected to field first in eliminator between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru. Gambhir wants to continue what has been successful for them throughout. David Warner also wanted to bat first and is happy with the decision.
Changes for Kolkata Knight Riders – Nathan Coulter-Nile for Trent Boult, Piyush Chawla for Kuldeep Yadav, Ishank Jaggi in for Manish Pandey. Changes for Sunrisers Hyderabad – Yuvraj Singh is back in. Chris Jordan and Kane Williamson for Mohammad Nabi and Moises Henriques. Mohammad Siraj sits out for Bipul Sharma.

The eliminator between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders on May 17 is set to see some key battles within the battle. This is the time when man-to-man strategies will have to be drawn and especially when the game is a knock-out one.

Here are the five key battles which will be interesting to watch in today’s game:

Gautam Gambhir vs Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Bhuvneshwar has been a threat to the batsmen in IPL 2017. He loves bowling to the left-handers, especially. Gautam Gambhir right up in the batting order for KKR will be a key player for KKR and if Bhuvi gets him early, it will set the game for SRH.

Chris Lynn vs Rashid Khan

Lynn has set the IPL 2017 on fire with his brutal hitting. However, his capability and power to hit the ball out of the park will be on test when he faces Rashid Khan. Interestingly, these two players have been find of the franchise’s this season and watching them both take on each other will be very, very interesting.

The first qualifier of IPL 2017 between Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiant played at Wankhede saw the visitors rising to the occasions, helped by brilliant performances by MS Dhoni and Washington Sundar.

Pune are through to the finals while Mumbai will wait for the winner of the first eliminator match involving Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad.

The match is set to be a high-octane contest as on one end there will be two-time IPL champions and on the other, the defending champions. One major reason of worry for both the teams is the Bengaluru weather. The clouds have enveloped the city since a last few days and chances are that it could rain on May 17, the match day.

Rain could play spoilsport on May 19 as well which is the date of the second qualifier. There are no reserve days for either the qualifier or the eliminator.

Two-time winners Kolkata Knight Riders will have to break the agonising sequence of debacles when they clash with defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL eliminator here on Wednesday.

The winner of Wednesday’s match will face the loser of Qualifier 1 between Mumbai Indians and Rising Supergiants Pune on May 19 in the second Qualifier, which will decide the second entrant of the final.

For KKR, it would take a significant turnaround to reach the second qualifier after they lost four out of seven matches in the latter half of the season.

The Shah Rukh Khan-owned side would like to find their form which saw them dominate the early stages of competition. KKR would hope Chris Lynn comes to the party, who has the ability to win a game on his own.

Gambhir too was in red-hot form early in the season but seemed a tad offcolour in the business end and the skipper, who is placed in the third spot in the most runs list with 454 runs, will hope to led from the front.

Kolkata Knight Riders lost their last home game against Mumbai Indians by 7 runs and due to this loss, they see themselves now at number 3 position in the IPL points table. Trent Boult, who played for KKR on Saturday said that the batters let the team down.

He said, “We didn’t probably bat enough but they bowled pretty well on a wicket that offered a little bit of pace, variation and bounce and luxury bowling second, you can put the pressure on opposition, click wickets and it becomes very hard for the opposition side to push on a side to a decent total.”

KKR has restricted Mumbai to a total of 173 runs but lost their momentum completely while batting.

“Ideally, in this format momentum is a big thing and you want to win as many games as you can. Unfortunately, it didn’t pan our way. We had hurdles in the last couple of games. We know we have to pay good cricket from now on. Every game is a tough game. It’s a must win game obviously so the pressure is on us to deliver and unfortunately we were just a bit off the mark today,” said on the challenges of keeping winning in IPL.

Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma lost his cool in the second innings of the game against Kolkata Knight Riders when a crucial decision did not go in his favour. Mumbai Indians had posted a target of 174 runs for KKR to chase down and the visitors started off well defending the total, picking Sunil Narine and Gautam Gambhir cheaply.

KKR were soon struggling at 126 for 5 with Manish Pandey and Colin de Grandhomme at the crease. Manish Pandey then nicked one into the hands of wicketkeeper Ambati Rayudu off Mitchell Johnson and the whole Mumbai Indians team appealed in unison. However, this strong appeal had no effect on umpire S Ravi who turned it down. This decision irked the Mumbai Indians players as it looked like a clear edge. But the decision had been made by then.

After winning the toss, Gautam Gambhir had no hesitation in putting Mumbai Indians to bat first. Kolkata Knight Riders had never lost at home in a chase since 2012 and of course, the way they’ve been chasing this season, Gambhir was never going to miss out on the chance of chasing yet again. Mumbai Indians made an overhaul of their squad, bringing in as many as six changes to the team. Sourabh Tiwary, Ambati Rayudu, Tim Southee, Mitchell Johnson, Krunal Pandya were in for Mumbai Indians while the likes of Bumrah, Malinga were rested, keeping the play-offs in mind.

Ambati Rayudu and Sourabh Tiwary were one of Mumbai’s best performers in the initial years of IPL and were batting together after a long, long time. Yet again, they put on a solid partnership at the top of the order after Simmons fell. While Tiwary got to his fifty at decent knots, Ambati Rayudu scored at a rapid rate and ensured that Mumbai posted an above par score.

Mumbai Indians have beat Kolkata Knight Riders in a clash of the heavyweights in Kolkata, cementing their top spot in the table. Mumbai Indians are now guaranteed to head into the IPL playoffs being guaranteed two shots of qualifying for the final.

Kolkata Knight Riders, on the other hand after a brilliant tournament so far, will have to win two games now to qualify for the finals. They have played all their matches and with 16 points and will not finish any higher than the second spot in the table. They could also finish fourth if Rising Pune Supergiant win their match against Kings XI Punjab tomorrow.

The match between Rising Pune Supergiant and Kings XI Punjab has now turned out to be the biggest match of the tournament so far. The team which wins the match will qualify for the playoffs. If Rising Pune Supergiant win the match, they are guaranteed to finish second. If Kings XI Punjab win and win with a big margin, they could pip Kolkata Knight Riders for the third spot.

Rohit Sharma wanted his bench to be tested today and hence made six changes to the playing XI. Saurabh Tiwary and Ambati Rayudu got a game today as well. Two young turks who evolved to playing for the national side due to their incredible performances for Mumbai Indians back in 2008-09, were once again in the middle of a partnership and made individual fifties. But it was Ambati Rayudu’s strike rate of 170 and 6 biggies that propelled Mumbai Indians to 173. The average score here is 160 and hence, Mumbai Indians can pat themselves on the back for a half job well done. Now, the other half is to defend this down. Meanwhile, here’s how Twitter reacted to it.

Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir has won the toss and elected to field first in the 54th match of the IPL between Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

Mumbai Indians are in desperate need for some momentum having lost their last two matches against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kings XI Punjab. Kolkata too were handed a defeat in their last match against the Kings XI Punjab. Both teams will now be looking towards heading into the playoff with a win under their belt.

In the head-to-head records between two of the biggest teams in the IPL, Mumbai Indians hold a clear edge over Kolkata Knight Riders. In the 19 matches contested between the two teams, Mumbai have won 14 with Kolkata only having won 5.

Kolkata Knight Riders will host table-toppers Mumbai Indians in the 54th match of the IPL at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata to decide who will top the table in the IPL-10 group standings. The match is also important for Kolkata Knight Riders as they are still in danger of missing out on a playoff spot.

Mumbai Indians are in desperate need for some momentum having lost their last two matches against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kings XI Punjab. Kolkata too were handed a defeat in their last match against the Kings XI Punjab. Both teams will now be looking towards heading into the playoff with a win under their belt.

Kolkata Knight Riders are currently at the number 2 spot in the IPL points table. The Gautam Gambhir-led side have been quite phenomenal in IPL 2017, winning one match after the other. They lost their last match against Kings XI Punjab, however, that has not made the KKR players lose morale.

And even if the morale is down a bit, it will be boosted on Saturday night as the team owner and Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan will be there at Eden Gardens cheering for his boys.

Shah Rukh Khan is one of those team owners in IPL, who is deeply involved with his team. SRK has been busy shooting for his next film abroad but that does not mean he will not watch the game on TV. He has been glued to the TV set all this IPL and every now and then tweets about the same. Even when the team loses, an SRK tweet is enough to lift the spirits of the players.

Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir has blamed his batsmen and has claimed that they played too many dot balls against Kings XI Punjab which cost them the match. He has also revealed that he may be back to opening the batting against Mumbai Indians in their last match of the group stage against Mumbai Indians, which could well turn out to be a do or die encounter for them.

Gambhir pinning the blame on his batsman said, “The dots ball made a lot of difference. I could have opened and Robin could have batted at three at his original position. But Sunil (Narine) has been hitting the ball well and we thought that he could provide the momentum up front.”

Kolkata Knight Riders batsman Chris Lynn, who has had an exceptional season opening the batting in the 10th edition of the IPL has claimed that teams are afraid of him and Sunil Narine opening the batting together. Kolkata Knight Riders have surprised one and all by sending in Chris Lynn, who is traditionally a middle order batsman and Sunil Narine, a strike bowler to open the batting, despite having two traditional openers in the form of Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa in their lineup.

Kolkata Knight Riders lost their last match against Kings XI Punjab but due to the quickfire nature of the opening stand between Lynn and Narine, easily beat Royal Challengers Bangalore in the match before that. Speaking on the loss against Kings XI Punjab, Lynn said, “Obviously disappointed at the loss against Kings XI, we could not get to the two points at the end of the day. If we lose the next one, we could possibly find ourselves out of the competition, that’s the challenge ahead. We need one big performance against Mumbai (in the next game).”

Kolkata Knight Riders are still not guaranteed of making the playoffs in the 10th edition of the IPL, despite having 16 points from 13 matches. The defeat against Kings XI Punjab has left them in a precarious situation, where they could still miss out on the top 4 spots despite being one of the most consistent teams in the tournament.

Kolkata Knight Riders have one match left to play in the tournament against table toppers Mumbai Indians. It has turned out to be a bit of a must-win situation for Kolkata Knight Riders now. If they manage to win the game at home against Mumbai, they need not worry about the other teams as they will directly qualify for the playoffs. But if they lose the game, which still remains a distinct possibility, they will have to look at the results of other teams to qualify for the playoffs. One factor which is in their favor is that they have a very good net run rate of +0.729. If Punjab win the two remaining games, it could well come down to net run-rate between the two teams in order to decide which one of them qualifies for the playoffs.

Kings XI were sent into bat by Gautam Gambhir, who opted to chase as he does traditionally. There were two changes in KKR with Robin Uthappa coming back for Sheldon Jackson while Piyush Chawla came in for Kuldeep Yadav. Kings XI Punjab made four big changes with Swapnil Singh, Rahul Tewatia, Matt Henry and Manan Vohra came in and two of them, Manan and Tewatia made a big contribution towards their team.

Manan Vohra got off to an absolute flier right from the word go and perished for a 16-ball 25. Shaun Marsh, who was playing his 150th T20I match did not stick around for too long but the captain, Glenn Maxwell stood up to the cause, knowing that if Kings lose today, they’re out of the game and started scoring heavily with boundaries. He took a liking to Kuldeep Yadav especially but perished to him soon after. Saha keeping company to Maxwell paid off and Kings XI eventually wrapped up for 167 in their 20 overs.

Kings XI Punjab face a must-win situation against Kolkata Knight Riders today in Match 49 of IPL 2017 but have only managed to put up a par score, after being sent into bat first by Gautam Gambhir. The loss of Hashim Amla at the top was clearly hurting them as he seemed to be the only one holding the fort at one end for the season. While there were many cameos but that one big innings was lacking from the Kings XI top order. Here’s how Twitter reacted to the same.

Gautam Gambhir has won the toss and elected to field first in Match 49 of IPL 2017 against Kings XI Punjab. Gambhir defends the decision by saying that there’s no reason to change their momentum and hence they’re chasing. Glenn Maxwell says that they would have fielded as well. Robin Uthappa is back for Sheldon Jackson while Kuldeep Yadav is back for Piyush Chawla.

Swapnil Singh, Rahul Tewatia, Manan Vohra are back in the playing XI. Matt Henry is going to make his IPL debut this season.

IPL 2017 is nearing to the climax and the picture of the final 4 team is getting clear with each passing game now. Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders have already qualified for the playoffs. Sunrisers Hyderabad are almost there as well. The race for the last spot is between Rising Pune Supergiant and Kings XI Punjab and it will be interesting to see who makes the cut between these two teams.

At the same time, it is not just the mathematics of qualifying for the playoffs which is troubling the teams. It is also the sudden departure of some of the key international players before the playoffs which will hurt the teams.

A play-offs spot after having sealed a resounding victory in their previous match, Kolkata Knight Riders would aim for a top-two finish with a win when they take on an inconsistent Kings XI Punjab in an IPL match.

KKR bounced back from their back-to-back defeats when they registered an easy six-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore in Bengaluru on Sunday.

The Gautam Gambhir-led side are now at the second spot in the league table with 16 points from 12 matches with the help of eight wins and they would look to consolidate their position with a win over Kings XI, who suffered a six-wicket defeat to Gujarat Lions last night.

KKR showed why they are one of the strongest teams in this IPL when they inflicted a humiliating defeat on bottom place RCB. Chasing a modest 159 for victory on Sunday, KKR made it easy, racing to 105 for no loss in just six overs, for a record IPL powerplay total.

Kolkata Knight Riders proved to be too good for Royal Challengers Bangalore on Sunday as they beat them by 6 wickets to register a comfortable victory. One of the key players on Sunday night was Sunil Narine, who not only picked an important wicket of AB de Villiers with the ball but also blasted the RCB bowlers in the first 6 overs to help KKR make a record 105 runs in the powerplay. In the process, he also scored the fastest fifty in the history of Indian Premier League.

However, Sunil Narine was himself shocked at his extraordinary effort with the bat. He said during the post-match presentation ceremony, “Yes, I’m very surprised. Definitely wasn’t expecting something like this.”

Speaking on what was the chat between him and his opening partner Chris Lynn, he said, “Lynny just said, keep your eyes on the ball, maintain your focus and swing through the line. I try to keep it simple and back my ability.”

Kolkata Knight Riders off-spinner Sunil Narine has surprised one and all in the 10th edition of the IPL with his exploits with the bat as an opener for Kolkata Knight Riders in the 10th edition of the IPL. He was in sensational form against the hapless Royal Challengers Bangalore bowlers scoring the joint fastest fifty in the history of the IPL in only 15 deliveries. His efforts have drawn widespread acclaim and joining in the chorus is none other that Sunrisers Hyderabad all-rounder Yuvraj Singh.

The Indian batsman has taken to his personal Twitter account praising Narine. He has gone as far as to say that West Indies should no longer search for another opener as Narine is their answer to the troubled position.

Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir is known for his honest review, whether of his own team or of himself. As an IPL player, he believes that nobody should expect themselves to be picked to the ODI side on the basis of IPL performance. He said while speaking to ESPNcricinfo, “Absolutely, I totally agree [that T20 numbers should not be the sole criteria for ODI selection].”

“T20 runs should only be a criteria to get selected for a T20 side. The moment you start picking players in the one-day format by their T20 performance, then you are giving your domestic 50-over competitions absolutely no relevance,” he concluded.

Kolkata Knight Riders make it two big wins out of two in this season against Royal Challengers Bangalore as they humiliated them at their home ground to win by 6 wickets. It was the Narine-Lynn show that set the tone for the chase and eventually, KKR were dragged a little to beat Virat Kohli for the 2nd comprehensive time this season.

Even though Royal Challengers Bangalore are out of the play-off rounds, Kolkata had a lot to play given that since their initial surge, they had a bit of a slump but after today’s resounding performance, they can pat themselves on the back for a job well done. After choosing to field first, there was an immediate smile on Gautam Gambhir’s face as he couldn’t hide his glee in chasing, knowing for a fact that Royal Challengers would ideally have wanted to chase this down. Also, Chris Lynn was back after a lengthy lay-off from this season. Yet another familiar batting slump which begun right with ball 1 with Chris Gayle’s dismissal was basically the representation of RCB’s graph in this season. Even right from the initial stages, they’ve failed to make any sort of impact but luckily for them, Travis Head, who was brought in for Shane Watson today, played a brilliant innings to steer RCB’s ship to safety……only that the ship was to hit a Titanic named Narine-Lynn.

Things have gone from bad to worst to embarrassing for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 10th edition of the IPL in their match against Kolkata Knight Riders. Already languishing at the bottom of the table, Kolkata Knight Riders have piled further misery on the Bangalore-based outfit. Chasing down a total of 159, Gautam Gambhir surprised one and all by not coming out to bat and sending the pair of Sunil Narine and Chris Lynn, both of whom are regular openers. And they have responded brilliantly taking the Royal Challengers Bangalore bowlers to the cleaners.

The pair have broken many records while batting in the middle in Bangalore. Sunil Narine was the aggressor, scoring the joint fastest half-century in the history of the IPL in only 15 deliveries. He equals Yusuf Pathan’s record who scored a half-century in 15 balls in 2014 against Sunrisers Hyderabad. The pair scored 105 runs in the six overs of powerplay, the most runs scored in it in the history of the cash-rich tournament. Chris Lynn has scored at a run-rate of 12.00 in the powerplay in the current edition of the IPL. Sunil Narine is has scored at a run rate of 11.14 RPO. strike-rates are highest for batsmen who have faced over 50 balls in the IPL.

The IPL is a platform for many players for different reasons. For a youngster, it’s a chance to shine on the international stage. For a T20 freelancer, it’s their only way out. For former cricketers, it’s a reason to be still involved in the game. But for a cricketer who’s solely focussed on getting back to playing in the national colours, it’s a chance at redemption. Gautam Gambhir so far has been the prime example of it.

Since KKR had a turnaround in their fortunes in 2011, Gautam Gambhir had been a crucial cog in that change. Even though KKR finished only 4th in that year, the wheels had already started setting in motion. After the major overhaul of the squad in 2011, KKR then punted big on an unknown commodity back then, Sunil Narine. Later it was learnt that while Venky Mysore and Shah Rukh Khan were completely unaware of such a player before the auction, it was Gambhir who made that call to break the bank on this unorthodox West Indian mystery spinner after playing him in just one game in an ODI in the Caribbean.

Gautam Gambhir has won the toss and elected to field in Match 46 of IPL 2017 against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Gautam Gambhir wants to restrict them as they feel RCB are a better side chasing. Virat Kohli said they had a few troubles chasing here and hence they would have anyways wanted to bat first. Kohli also feels that the attitude is very important now and give the opposition a tough match and wants his team to finish on a high. Travis Head is in for Shane Watson for Royal Challengers Bangalore. Chris Lynn is back for Nathan Coulter-Nile. Suryakumar Yadav and Kuldeep Yadav are out for Ankit Rajpoot and Piyush Chawla.

Successive defeats have dented Kolkata Knight Riders’ hope of getting on to the top of the table. They will look to regain their momentum and remain in the hunt for the knockout stage when they clash with laggards Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 46th game of IPL 2017.

It is an important game for RCB too who need to win it to salvage their pride more than anything. These are the moments when self-pride becomes as important as an IPL trophy. RCB are panicking at the moment in desperation for a win. However, this urgency is causing their downfall more than anything.

Kolkata Knight Riders, who suffered losses against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rising Pune Supergiant in the last two matches, need two wins out of the remaining three matches to seal their berth in the play-off.

The two-time champions are placed second in the table with 14 points out of 11 matches, followed by RPS and Sunrisers at 14 and 13 points.

The Indian Premier League 2017 action hottens up as we enter the business stages of the tournament, the playoffs! So far, only Mumbai Indians has qualified into the play-off stage, accumulating the required 16 points in the IPL points table. They’ve played just 10 games so far and has been the team to watch out along with Kolkata Knight Riders until KKR’s latest results.
To knock Mumbai Indians from the porch is going to be a huge task for the other teams as they’ve looked the least beatable side so far. Right from their top order clicking to having the best death bowler in this IPL so far in the name of Jasprit Bumrah, everything has gone their way.

The whole world witnessed a superstar in the making when Rahul Tripathi played sensational innings of 52-ball 93 against Kolkata Knight Riders. In his debut season and being bought or a meagre 10 lakhs in the IPL auction, Rahul Tripathi has been the top run-scorer for RPS in this season and is making every head turn in his direction. There were also strong rumours of Rahul Tripathi for being in contention for an India cap and England all-rounder and team-mate, Ben Stokes echoed the same emotions.

In an interview with Sky Sports, Stokes said, “He’s going to be a superstar, I think, He’s proved when he’s come in, he’s performed in every single game and you can just tell from the shots that he plays that he’s got some serious talent,”. I think he can only go further and I don’t think it will be long until we see him in an India shirt”.

As far as laugh out loud moments go, the recent hilarity before the match between SRK’s Kolkata Knight Riders and the Rising Pune Supergiants reached a new level of extraaa innings. The umpire walked onto the field and was offered apples instead of balls by a beautiful woman. He took one apple, signalled no and gave it back and did the same with the next apple. The umpire was finally given the ball the third time.

We’re not entirely sure what people were thinking, what the umpires were thinking, what the lady was thinking and most importantly, what the IPL organizers were thinking; but it’s safe to say that the ‘Garden of Eden’ lady in Eden Gardens did a good job giving the audience at home a laugh and children a good theology lesson.

The antic did not go down well with some people, who claim the ‘embarassing’ moment is just another lost mark for the IPL, who have become famous for the bizarre. Whether you like it or not, the IPL has its share of memories outside the match and this was one of the funniest. Here are some of the surprised tweets that rolled in during the aftermath:

Chasing a mere total of 156 runs, set by Kolkata Knight Riders, in IPL is never an easy task and the Steve Smith-led Rising Pune Supergiant had no sweat in reaching the milestone in the 41st game of the tournament.

Winning the toss first, the Aussie skipper decided to go for the chase, giving Gautam Gambhir’s men a stage to score as high as possible. The home side, however, lost out their opener Sunil Narine in no time followed by Sheldon Jackson. Hence, the momentum was lost and to add further misery, skipper Gautam Gambhir was shown his way back as well.

Manish Pandey and Colin Grandhomme did manage to steady the home cruise, but with no time at their disposal, a mere score was put on board.

Pune, on their part, lost Ajinkya Rahane a bit early, but a fine inning by Rahul Tripathi got his side to yet another victory. Skipper Steve Smith, Manoj Tiwary and Ben Stokes got out for a paltry total, but by the time, the visitors had the reins of the game in their hand.

While Kolkata Knight Riders may have redeemed themselves for a Smith Special, a Stokes Sensation or even a Dhoni Dhamaka but they weren’t prepared for a storm that arrived in Kolkata by the name of Rahul Tripathi that made sure the Eden Gardens were treated to one of the cleanest displays of hitting in IPL for a long, long time. By introducing Kuldeep Yadav late in the innings to Rahul Tripathi who was set in the crease, Gautam Gambhir may have made his 1st tactical mistake of the season.

After electing to field first, Steve Smith decided to go unchanged with the winning team from last game and yet again, Pune bowlers were absolutely spot on. While KKR were dealt a huge blow with Robin Uthappa sitting out with a niggle, Sheldon Jackson, his replacement was hit-wicket earlier but then, Manish Pandey and Gautam Gambhir put on a good partnership to ensure the ship did not break down. But while the middle order perished down and with KKR staring down the barrel, it required two sweet cameos from Colin de Grandhomme and Suryakumar Yadav to propel KKR to a respectable total of 155.

Given the nod to set the target, Kolkata Knight riders only managed a mere score of 155 runs, which, as per this format, is actually a peanut total.

In as early as first over, with deadlock yet to be broken, the home side lost Sunil Narine and Sheldon Jackson soon followed the West Indian into the dugout. The highest a Kolkata Knight Rider’s batsman managed was a 32-ball 37, scored by Manish Pandey. Next up was Colin de Grandhomme who scored a massive 36 off just 19 deliveries, hitting three boundaries and two maximums.

The home side clearly missed the brilliance of Robin Uthappa who missed the game due to a hamstring injury.

Steve Smith has won the toss and elect to field today against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata. Gambhir wants to put runs on the board and restrict Pune. Steve Smith says that Ben Stokes was magnificent yesterday. Gambhir admitted that it was a bad day and Warner took the game away from them. Robin Uthappa has a slight niggle and sits out today. Suryakumar Yadav replaces him. Steve Smith says that they are going unchanged today.

Kolkata though will fancy their chances of victory of regaining lost momentum at their home turf of Eden Gardens in Kolkata, where they have been nothing short of brilliant. The conditions suit their team set-up down to the tee and they will head into the match as slight favourites in the encounter.

The 41st match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Rising Pune Supergiant is important for both the teams. KKR need to win this game to assure they end up at the top of the table while RPS is fighting for a position in top 4.

These numbers suggest that this is an exciting contest to watch:

RPS should be wary of Gautam Gambhir as the left-handed batsman averages 55.28 and has been scoring run at a strike rate of 135.31in IPL 2017.

MS Dhoni is nearing yet another milestone as he is just 30 runs short of 3500 IPL runs. He has found form since the last few games and expect him to cross this mark comfortably in today’s game if he gets to bat.

Kolkata Knight Riders will face off against a resurgent Rising Pune Supergiant unit in the 41st match of the 10th edition of the IPL at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Kolkata Knight Riders are still reeling from the David Warner show in Hyderabad, where the Australian opener’s blistering innings single-handedly took the game away from them. Rising Pune Supergiant, on the other hand, are on a high after winning last 5 of their 6 games, which has given them very realistic chance of qualifying for the playoffs. The last victory came on the back of a brilliant Ben Stokes ton against the Gujarat Lions.

Kolkata though will fancy their chances of victory of regaining lost momentum at their home turf of Eden Gardens in Kolkata, where they have been nothing short of brilliant. The conditions suit their team set-up down to the tee and they will head into the match as slight favourites in the encounter.

Head to head:

Kolkata have a dominant record in the head to head between the two teams, with them winning all the three matches contested between the two teams. Kolkata and Pune have faced off in three matches, with Kolkata winning all the three encounters.

Matches played – 3. Kolkata Won – 3. Rising Pune Supergiant Won – 0.

Likely Playing XI

Both teams have all the key players available for the match and are unlikely to tinker too much with the tried and trusted setup.

Australian batsman Chris Lynn has expressed his hope of returning from a shoulder injury in the 10th edition of the IPL in Kolkata Knight Riders’ match against Kings XI Punjab on May 9. Lynn is expected to be back in the nets for Kolkata Knight Riders after three weeks on May 2. Lynn had injured his shoulder while fielding for the Knight Riders against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede stadium on April 9.

Lynn speaking to Cricket.com.au, Lynn said, “The shoulder is slowly getting there. I had a cortisone injection the other day and it worked really well. I gave it a bit of a wriggle and it went back in. Because I’ve had it a few times now, I sort of knew what timeframe I was looking at to get back if there wasn’t too much damage after a scan.”

The IPL match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad saw David Warner blasting his way to a quick ton. His bat which was silent for the last few matches did the talking finally. However, it was not just his bat which did all the talking in the match.

KKR batsman Robin Uthappa was found shouldering SRH fast bowler Siddharth Kaul after hitting him for a boundary. KKR lost the game by 48 runs and also some fair play points after Uthappa’s uncalled act.

What all happened?

Robin Uthappa hit Kaul for a beautiful four in the third over of the match while chasing a tough target set by Sunrisers Hyderabad. Kaul was going back to the crease when the KKR batsman nudged him with his shoulder. A shocked Kaul looked at him but decided not to utter anything.

Sunrisers Hyderabad have taken a massive step towards sealing their place in the playoffs spot by beating table-toppers and high flyers Kolkata Knight Riders in the 37th match of the 10th edition of the IPL at their home venue of the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad. Hyderabad put into bat first by Kolkata Knight Riders, registered a massive score on the board of 209/3 thanks to a blistering century by captain David Warner. Kolkata Knight Riders in reply could only score 161/7 in reply, losing the match by 48 runs.

Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir has won the toss and elected to field first in the 37th match of the 10th edition of the IPL between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders in Hyderabad. Hyderabad have made two changes to their team, bringing in Mohammed Siraj and Bipul Sharma in place of Deepak Hooda and Ashish Nehra. Kolkata have named an unchanged lineup.

It will also be a contest between two of the best bowling attacks in the IPL. Batsmen from both teams have also been in brilliant form. Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa and Manish Pandey have formed the core of the Kolkata Knight Riders batting unit, with David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan and Kane Williamson doing a similar job for Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Sunrisers Hyderabad will host Kolkata Knight Riders in the clash of the titans at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad in the 37th match of the 10th edition of the IPL. It will also be a contest between two of the best bowling attacks in the IPL. Batsmen from both teams have also been in brilliant form. Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa and Manish Pandey have formed the core of the Kolkata Knight Riders batting unit, with David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan and Kane Williamson doing a similar job for Sunrisers Hyderabad. In the first match between them in the current season, Kolkata Knight Riders came away with the victory at home. Sunrisers Hyderabad will now look forward to returning the favor at their home ground. Kolkata currently sit on top of the table with 14 points off 9 matches. Hyderabad have 11 points in a similar number of games.

IPL 2017 is has seen many epic matches taking place, going to the last over. Also, in this IPL, there is no set formula to win matches. At the start of the league, there were teams which won the matches chasing and then came a phase when the teams were winning defending the total.

It won’t be wrong to say that bowling has been the centre of attraction in this edition. The fact that the top 4 teams are those with a strong bowling line-up justifies the statement.

A look at Points table suggests that two teams have definitely qualified for the playoffs in form of Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders. The two teams are sitting right at the top of the table. KKR with 14 points and MI with 12 points thus far have an equal chance of even lifting the Trophy this year.

Gautam Gambhir led Kolkata Knight Riders completely outclassed the Zaheer Khan led Delhi Daredevils in the 32nd fixture of this season’s Indian Premier League. Winning the toss first, the 35-year-old former Daredevil elected to bowl first and that proved out to be the perfect roll of dice. The visiting team, Delhi Daredevils, despite starting off in style, only managed a mere score of 160 runs in 20 overs, which, as per the standards of Kolkata Knight Riders, was a peanut total.

Losing Sunil Narine early in the game, pressure came onto the shoulders of skipper Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa and the duo, for the countless number of time, guided the Riders to chase down the total in just 16 overs. And in the process, the Kolkata-based outfit won their third game in a row. Gambhir, on his part, played a massive inning, staying unbeaten at 71, and in the process, retained his orange cap.

The left-handed batsman has been a complete revelation in this tenth edition of IPL, as he has scored 376 runs in just 9 games, i.e., he averages 62.66 runs per game. With that being said and done, Gambhir set some brilliant milestones in this innings, and to names a few, here are some of them:

Winning the toss first, Kolkata Knight Riders’ skipper Gautam Gambhir decided to bowl first and it turned out to be the perfect roll of dice, as they cruised to another easy win.

Coming on to bat first, the Zaheer Khan led Delhi Daredevils put up a good show as Sanju Samson, yet again, showed his brilliance alongside Karun Nair, who only managed a 17-ball 15. Both Shreyas Iyer and Sanju Samson then formed a formidable partnership, stretching the score off to 123, to steady up the cruise, however, Umesh Yadav’s line-up in the bowling attack got the better of Samson and soon the momentum turned the tables.

With that being said and done, Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer soon followed that Kerala-born into the dugout and by the time, the home team had the reins in their hand. Delhi then only managed a mere score of 159 runs on the board.

On came Kolkata’s opener Sunil Narine and Gautam Gambhir. In as early as second over, Narine was shown his way back to pavilion and for the countless time running, Gambhir and Uthappa led their side to victory. While the former stayed unbeaten on 71 off 52 deliveries (hitting 11 boundaries), the latter got dismissed on 59 off just 33 deliveries.

Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir has won the toss and has elected to field first in the 32nd match of the 10th edition of the IPL between Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Daredevils at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Kolkata Knight Riders have brought in Nathan Coulter-Nile and Sheldon Jackson into the side. For Delhi Daredevils

It’s a match between two teams at different ends of the table as Kolkata who sit at the top of the table take on Delhi who are the bottom-placed side. It must be noted though that Delhi Daredevils have played two games less but it is slowly reaching a point where they will have to start notching up wins in order to make the playoffs spot. Kolkata are the in-form team of the tournament and a win will all but seal their place in the top 4.

Young Kuldeep Yadav has been making headlines ever since he played the last Test match of Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Dharamsala. The 22-year-old has been quite a revelation in IPL as well, picking plenty of wickets for KKR.

With 8 wickets in 7 games, he might not appear in the list of purple cap holders, however, his effectiveness has been far more than just the number of wickets in his tally.

Speaking to the Indian Express, he talked about what helps him pick wickets in a tough format such as IPL. He said, It been 5 years that I have been playing in the IPL. There is a lot of pressure to perform in each match but I am not concerned about it. I always back my strengths which is my chinaman delivery. I have a few variations up my arsenal and they have helped my bowling. They are useful when the batsman tends to attack but when I am under pressure I always back my chinaman delivery to get me wickets because it is my biggest strength.

It is difficult for a spinner to bowl in a T20 game but that has not stopped Kuldeep from giving his best. He said, You cant afford to flight the ball too much in T20 cricket as you can get hit. But I dont cower in fear. At times you get hit and at times you dont, but it doesnt affect me. My job is to get the ball to turn and I focus on that.

Kuldeep has a mature head for a 22-year-old. He has made his way to this far on his ability to spin the ball and he must be proud of having done so. However, his real test begins now. It is tough to get to the top and it is way too difficult to stay there. Kuldeep will have to make sure that from here, he only looks up and does the hard work.

Young Kuldeep Yadav has been making headlines ever since he played the last Test match of Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Dharamsala. The 22-year-old has been quite a revelation in IPL as well, picking plenty of wickets for KKR.

With 8 wickets in 7 games, he might not appear in the list of purple cap holders, however, his effectiveness has been far more than just the number of wickets in his tally.

Speaking to the Indian Express, he talked about what helps him pick wickets in a tough format such as IPL. He said, “It been 5 years that I have been playing in the IPL. There is a lot of pressure to perform in each match but I am not concerned about it. I always back my strengths which is my chinaman delivery. I have a few variations up my arsenal and they have helped my bowling. They are useful when the batsman tends to attack but when I am under pressure I always back my chinaman delivery to get me wickets because it is my biggest strength.”

It is difficult for a spinner to bowl in a T20 game but that has not stopped Kuldeep from giving his best. He said, “You can’t afford to flight the ball too much in T20 cricket as you can get hit. But I don’t cower in fear. At times you get hit and at times you don’t, but it doesn’t affect me. My job is to get the ball to turn and I focus on that.”

Kuldeep has a mature head for a 22-year-old. He has made his way to this far on his ability to spin the ball and he must be proud of having done so. However, his real test begins now. It is tough to get to the top and it is way too difficult to stay there. Kuldeep will have to make sure that from here, he only looks up and does the hard work.

Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knight Riders ask for a great battle. Every time these two sides are in the middle, we expect some action to take place, whether in form of sixes, four or wickets or exchange of emotions.

While both these teams like to dominate, it is the performances which define the winner.

Both the teams have upper hand and limitations against each other. Here, a look at the same, in form of numbers:

Beware, Delhi Daredevils: Delhi Daredevils should watch out for KKR’s Sunil Narine who has been phenomenal against the Daredevils’ top order. The West Indian has bowled combined 56 deliveries at Sanju Samson, Karun Nair and Corey Anderson, conceding just 49 runs, which is a remarkable achievement.

Morris is the man: Watch out for Chris Morris too. The South-Africa all-rounder has justified the tag, making important runs with the bat and scalping wickets time and again with the ball. In the end overs of the IPL, where he has played 173 balls, he has scored a total of 319 runs. Also, he has scalped 29 wickets in 36 innings.

Narine might Pinch Delhi: We are talking about Sunil Narine again, this time for his batting prowess. He is lived up to the expectations of the team opening the batting for KKR. He has scored 89% of all his runs this season just in boundaries. Out of 137 runs scored this season by Narine, 122 of them have come in fours and sixes. Jaw dropping stuff!

Young and fiery Pant: 44 boundaries for Rishabh Pant in IPL so far. He has hit 28 fours and 14 sixes and faced just 90 dot balls, which means that he hits a boundary after every two dot ball. Wonder why he is not batting up in the order?

Unlike Robin numbers: The star of the last match against Rising Pune Supergiant, Robin Uthappa has a bad record against Daredevils bowlers. In combined 134 balls, he has faced from Chris Morris, Amit Mishra and Zaheer Khan, he has been picked 9 times, while making just 139 runs. Zaheer would like to know this.

Table-toppers Kolkata Knight Riders will take on bottom-placed Delhi Daredevils in match 32 of the Indian Premier League 2017. Gautam Gambhir who plays for Delhi in Ranji and who has expressed his desire to move to Delhi in the future in the IPL will want to further stamp their authority at home, already being table-toppers in the league. Head to head, Delhi and KKR have clashed 19 times with Kolkata winning 11 times. At Eden Gardens though, Kolkata have won 5 out of 6 times with Delhi’s solitary win coming way back in 2012. Welcome to a fortress, Delhi Daredevils!

Delhi Daredevils are currently languishing at the bottom of the table and things have gone haywire for them right from the start of the season. From injury worries to top order batting issues, the Rahul Dravid-side looked one of the promising sides to take the title after the auction ended and the squads had come out. But now, theyre staring right down the elimination role and only a miracle, coupled with blunders from other teams would propel them to a chance at qualifications for the play-off round.Here are some of the other things to look forward to in this exciting match:

Table-toppers Kolkata Knight Riders will take on bottom-placed Delhi Daredevils in match 32 of the Indian Premier League 2017. Gautam Gambhir who plays for Delhi in Ranji and who has expressed his desire to move to Delhi in the future in the IPL will want to further stamp their authority at home, already being table-toppers in the league. Head to head, Delhi and KKR have clashed 19 times with Kolkata winning 11 times. At Eden Gardens though, Kolkata have won 5 out of 6 times with Delhi’s solitary win coming way back in 2012. Welcome to a fortress, Delhi Daredevils!

Delhi Daredevils are currently languishing at the bottom of the table and things have gone haywire for them right from the start of the season. From injury worries to top order batting issues, the Rahul Dravid-side looked one of the promising sides to take the title after the auction ended and the squads had come out. But now, they’re staring right down the elimination role and only a miracle, coupled with blunders from other teams would propel them to a chance at qualifications for the play-off round.Here are some of the other things to look forward to in this exciting match:

Kolkata Knight Riders’ skipper Gautam Gambhir has assured to cover the educational expenses of the children of the 25 CRPF jawans killed in a snare, attacked by the Maoists in Chhattisgarh on Monday.

The 35-year-old former India skipper said that everything will be working through his Gautam Gambhir Foundation and the initial workings are already in progress. The left-handed batsman also added that the holocaust shook him all ends up and the pictures of the daughters of two martyred left him in extreme grieve.

“On Wednesday morning, I picked up newspapers and saw gut-wrenching pictures of the daughters of two CRPF men killed in the latest attacks. One was saluting her martyred father while in the other picture, the howling young woman was being consoled by her relative,” Gambhir wrote in his column for Hindustan Times.

“The Gautam Gambhir Foundation will take care of the entire education expenses of the children of these martyrs. My team has already started work on this and I shall soon share the progress we have made,” he added.

KKR were going strong against Rising Pune Supergiant while chasing a stiff 183 on Wednesday night in the 30th match of IPL 2017. The opening pair of Gautam Gambhir-Sunil Narine were going strong at 20 for none after two overs. In the third over, however, a Dhoni special was on offer. On the third ball of the third over, Gautam Gambhir dabbed the Washington Sundar delivery to the fine leg.

The ball deflected by Gambhir reached the short fine leg quickly. They thought of stealing a quick run but Sunil Narine was struggling to the striker’s end. To his good luck, the throw was not on the stumps. To his bad luck, MS Dhoni was standing in front of the stumps.

Dhoni, bringing in use all his genius, easily deflected the ball onto the stumps while Narine was still three inches away from the popping crease. The on-field umpire, unsure of what all happened, went upstairs. The third umpire had a close look of the run-out. And then the screen flashed ‘Out’.

Delhi Daredevils, who are struggling in IPL 2017, have bolstered their batting by including West Indian Marlon Samuels in the squad. Samuels replaced Quinton De Kock, who ruled himself out of the IPL 2017 even before the tournament began.

Daredevils need some batting experience in the playing XI, which is full of youngsters. The only experience guy in the playing XI is Karun Nair, who himself has played 93 games.

The way Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Gautam Gambhir has led the side, he deserves a round of applause. His stint as KKR captain has made the franchise one of the top 3 team of the league and one cannot help but admit that the Delhi-born captain has worked hard to make his team.

With 305 runs in 8 matches thus far in IPL 2017, Gautam Gambhir sits at the top of the Orange Cap holders list. More importantly, his side KKR sits at the top of the points table with 6 wins and just 2 losses and the best run rate amongst all, that of 1.153.

While chasing KKR look always at ease and one of the important factors to make this happen is Gautam Gambhir, who has a phenomenal record playing in the second innings in IPL. Overall, the left-handed batsman averages 48.29 per dismissal in the second innings as compared to 29.13 in the first innings.

This goes on to show that Gambhir is a master chaser and someone on whom the whole team can depend, irrespective of whatever total that has been put on the scoreboard by the opposition.

Gambhir himself has admitted the fact that KKR are a good chasing side. Chasing is an art that the team has mastered over the years and Gambhir has played a huge role in making that happen.

Kolkata Knight Riders put up a highly professional performance, which their fans have come to expect of them to win 30th match of the 10th edition of the IPL against Rising Pune Supergiant in Pune. Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa made sure that the Kolkata-based franchise did not break a sweat while chasing Pune’s total of 182/5 down. They chased the total down with 11 balls remaining which has more or less ensured that they will qualify for the playoffs in the tournament.

While bowling, for large periods it seemed as though Pune would set a score of over 200 for Kolkata Knight Riders to chase down. But some mastery with the ball from young Kuldeep Yadav ensured that Pune had to stay content with a score of only 182 on the board. For Pune, captain Steve Smith carried on with his golden form to register another half-century on the board.

Not many have noticed that but Kolkata Knight Riders are wearing a black armband in their game against Rising Pune Supergiant in order to grieve the deaths of 25 CRPF jawans in Sukma.

A KKR official told Hindustan Times. “It was KKR’s tribute to the CRPF soldiers who lost their lives. The idea came from skipper Gautam Gambhir,”

Skipper Gautam Gambhir has often stood up in the patriotic affairs and have been in the midst of heavy criticism for the same as well. However, this hasn’t stopped the former Daredevil to stand up for a cause. This morning itself, Gambhir took to twitter and said:

“As we crib over lack of air conditioning or size of our already mammoth SUV, let’s ponder over d future of d daughters of CRPF martyrs.”

Winning the toss first, the Kolkata Knight Riders’ skipper, Gautam Gambhir, elected to bowl first and on came the Steve Smith-led Rising Pune Supergiant to bat.

Both the openers, Ajinkya Rahane and Rahul Tripathi, got off to a stable start, with the former playing it slow while the latter hitting the bowlers all ends up. After setting up a formidable partnership of more than 60 runs in 8 overs, Tripathi bowled himself out to Piyush Chawla – scoring a 23-ball 38 – and this is when the visitors gained the momentum.

Ajinka Rahane soon followed Tripathi into the dugout and Dhoni then played a respectable innings of 23 runs off just 11 balls before losing himself out to Piyush Chawla. And in the midst of all this, skipper Steve Smith completed his half century and helped his side to set a score of 183 runs to chase.

Rising Pune Supergiant/Kolkata Knight Riders captain Steve Smith/Gautam Gambhir has won the toss and elected to field first in the 30th match of the 10th edition of the IPL at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune.

The match pips the two in-form sides in the tournament against each other. Rising Pune Supergiant after an uncertain start in the tournament have managed to turn the tide around and are riding on a wave of momentum after three consecutive victories. Kolkata, on the other hand, have been one of the most consistent teams in the tournament sitting at the second spot in the table.

The pitch in Pune has so far been a belter of a wicket. Batsmen have enjoyed batting due to the true bounce and carry on it. The pitch in this match is also expected to be similar in nature and batsmen from both sides will enjoy batting on it.

Kolkata Knight Riders’ skipper Gautam Gambhir has come out in support of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, saying that on should not forget the contribution of the former skipper in the Indian Cricket team and also in the Indian Premier League.

The Ranchi-born veteran has been quite a silent cavalier in this season of the Indian Premier League, as he has failed to hit the ground of running so far, and this has seen him being criticized by many of the cricketing experts. Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly hailed some harsh words for Dhoni as he said that he isn’t sure as to whether Dhoni still has the fire in him to play the T-20 format.

“I am not too sure if Dhoni is a good T20 player. He is a champion ODI player but when it comes to T20 cricket, in 10 years, he has got one fifty and that’s not the best record.”

And now, with the Knight Riders bracing themselves for an all-important visit to Pune against Steve Smith’s men today, Gambhir has hailed the brilliance of MS Dhoni, saying:

“There is no one like a finisher or a starter. Ultimately, the one who scores the winning run is a finisher, irrespective of whether he’s an opening batsman or No 11. What matters is how much you are contributing. If you can win matches for your team, you are a finisher,” Gambhir told reporters ahead of KKR’s match against Rising Pune Supergiant at the MCA Stadium here.

Rising Pune Supergiant vs Kolkata Knight Riders. Mahendra Singh Dhoni vs Gautam Gambhir. Number 4 vs Number 2. Tonight’s Match 30, the 8 pm game in IPL 2017 between RPS and KKR is promising to be an absolute blockbuster. Both the teams are coming off emphatic victories. While KKR drubbed RCB for the lowest ever score in IPL, Pune got the better off their neighbours, Mumbai Indians for the 2nd time in this season. Things to look forward to today? We bring you the head-to-head, key clashes, players missing and the match preview.

KKR without Nathan Coulter-Nile: The Aussie speedster was one of the destroyer-in-chief against RCB, skittling out the RCB middle order with a beautiful display of seam bowling but unfortunately for KKR, he won’t be travelling today to Pune. In that case, KKR would go for horses for courses by bringing in Trent Boult or rely back to Shakib Al Hasan to fill up the overseas spot.

Kolkata Knight Riders make 130 for 1 batting first against Royal Challengers Bangalore. The team’s captain Gautam Gambhir is furious. He has seen his side play the best of cricket but on that night, seeing his side go down from 65 for 1 to 131 all-out, he could not help but get angry.

What does he do then? He goes to the dressing room, heads straight to the shower because he feels his anger will melt down with the 3-4 minutes of cold water dropping on his body. He is done with it but he is not impressed. He comes out and holding all his emotions to himself, he collects his team and tells them they need to win this match. KKR cannot let go the intent from here. The team goes to the ground and does the magic. All the eleven players give their all out in and in return they bowl out the opposition for a paltry 49. A team like RCB, possessing arguably the best batting lineup in the tournament go down in front of quality pace bowling by KKR. This speaks of his brilliance as a leader.

This is not a made up story. This is what Gautam Gambhir, in his latest column for Hindustan Times, spoke. He wrote about all that went in his mind when the team went back to the dressing room after the first inning. He wrote, “For the first time in my seven years with KKR I was fuming. The loss against Gujarat Lions was still haunting. On the back of that, we collapsed from 65 for 1 to 131 all out against RCB. It was unacceptable.”

He further added, “As the innings break was nearing the end I got the entire team together. There may be 60-odd thousand roaring outside our dressing room but inside it was so silent that you could hear people think!

“I started speaking and let go of all I had. I wanted intensity from my teammates. I wanted them to fight. I wanted them to win. I told them whoever dropped on intent should understand that this could be his last game for KKR, at least in my captaincy.”

Many might feel that Gautam Gambhir went overboard but as a leader, this was an important call that he had to take. Right now, we can only draw out positives from his speech in the dressing room because the team backed it and turned it into great results.

KKR captain Gautam Gambhir led his side with ultimate passion last night in Kolkata Knight Riders against Royal Challengers Bangalore, winning the game by 82 runs.

The fast bowlers did the job for KKR, who ran through the RCB batting line-up, bowling them out for a mere 49 runs. Skipper Gautam Gambhir wanted his bowlers to show “intent and pride” which Chris Woakes feels went a long way in Kolkata Knight Riders dismissing RCB for 49 — the lowest ever total in history of Indian Premier League.

“The captain asked us to show some intent and some pride. The opening bowlers set the tone for us. From there on, it was just trying to put the ball in right areas,” the 28-year-old Woakes said after the match.

In an exceptional display of pace bowling up front, Nathan Coulter Nile (3-0-21-3) and Umesh Yadav (3-0-15-1) ripped apart the vaunted RCB top-order in Powerplay, before Woakes (2-0-6-3) and Colin de Grandhomme (1.4-0-4-3) sealed the issue.

Woakes said the strategy was to hit the top of the off- stump. “Coulter-Nile and Umesh got to swing the ball up front.

When I came on, it did not swing but a little bit of movement off the length. If you hit the areas, more often than not it puts the batsmen under pressure especially when wickets are falling around,” Woakes said.

Woakes termed the Eden Gardens strip as a nice one. “The wicket was nice to bowl on. At the Eden Gardens, if you are off the area, you get punished because the outfield is quick. It actually is a good batting surface. As we have seen in previous games, 180 is par which is a good T20 score. But we bowled quite well on that pitch,” he said.

He admitted that at the break, it wasn’t like the team was supremely confident.

“I think I would be lying to say that we came at the half-time saying that we would definitely win the game. Not often you defend 130 particularly here at Eden Gardens,” Woakes said.

None of RCB’s batters could reach a double digit as their respective runs resembled a mobile number — 70189820250 — to succumb to 10th overall lowest in T20s. KKR’s defence of 131 (or under) was also only the 10th time in IPL history.

“We speak about their batting line-up, three of them, in particular, are world-class. We had a high price on their wickets. The fact that we got those three early (Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle), it really made a big difference in us defending the total.”

Woakes also commended the RCB bowlers for doing a good job. “Obviously, we were a little bit down halfway. We were under-par, and thought 160-170 was probably par on that wicket. We obviously did not bat very well but they also did not bat well. At the same time, we bowled well. Sometimes you have to just doff your hat to some good bowling.”

Asked if it was anything to do with the wicket, Woakes said, “I am not too sure. We got off to a good start. We were 87 after 10 overs. It proved that it actually was a decent wicket.”

“We lost wickets through the middle which in a T20 game is always quite crucial. If we take wickets, it’s always hard to get going again,” he said.

Woakes felt that it was a good toss won by Kohli as the good batting surface at the Eden normally prompts opposition captains to opt for chasing.

“It was a good toss to win (for RCB). We actually were looking to bowl first. In general, we like to chase on this ground. It usually is a good batting surface, the outfield is quick and you can always chase down almost any target,” Woakes concluded

It’s never an easy situation to be when you’re the captain of a team that has just been bowled out for 49. None of the batsmen reached double figures and it’ll go down as one of Virat Kohli’s most dreaded days in his cricketing life. But Virat Kohli had to attend the post-match interview and with Michael Hussey interviewing him, he couldn’t stop being ashamed of what had just transpired. Slamming the entire team for the shocking performance and with his head down, Virat Kohli said this in the post-match interview which was aired on TV.

“Our worst batting performance ever. It’s very hurtful standing here after the first half we had. Just reckless batting. I can’t really say anything at the moment. It was that bad. As professional cricketers, this was just not acceptable. It’s small things, the sight screen issues, one guy just got up when the bowler was loading up. We just didn’t turn up in the 2nd innings at all.

We’re going take the positives from the 1st half, there’s nothing to take from the 2nd game. This is just shocking for everyone. There is nothing to be said to the team at the moment. They’ll come out and back themselves. This kind of days doesn’t happen everyday. I’m sure this won’t happen ever again. We’re going home for two days, we’re on the road for quite a bit now. We got to capitalize from that.”

Royal Challengers Bangalore succumbed to a sensational bowling spell by the KKR pacers. Nathan Coulter-Nile was the pick of the bowlers by taking 3 key wickets in his 1st 3-over spell, Umesh Yadav wrecked havoc for Chris Gayle even though he did not take his wicket. Chris Woakes then came into the party to nail the final coffin by having Chris Gayle holed out to that man again, Nathan Coulter-Nile at mid off. With Pawan Negi and Samuel Badree at the crease, the chase has just gone from improbable to impossible. Meanwhile, Twitter lost its head over this clueless collapse of Royal Challengers Bangalore.

At one stage when Sunil Narine got the Eden Gardens going, the score was 60 odd off just 5 overs but a collapse in the middle order ensured that RCB came back strongly to bowl out KKR by 131 in 19.3 overs. The 1st 5 overs looked like one cricket match while the rest 15 looked like a different match altogether! At one stage, Kolkata looked like 200 would be a walk in the park for them but the leggie duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Samuel Badree bowled quite disciplined, enticing the mistakes from the batsmen and Kolkata could only sum up 131 on what looked like a batting paradise. Here’s how Twitter reacted to this.

The pinch-hitter formula of Sunil Narine remains to be solved as the left-handed ‘opener’ yet again put on an exhibition of shots today against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Opening the bowling, Samuel Badree had to face the wrath of a free-flowing stroke-making showcase by Sunil Narine who took him to the cleaners by smoking him for 18 runs, the most runs conceded in the 1st over in this edition of the IPL. Yet again, Twitter couldn’t help but marvel over Sunil Narine.

Virat Kohli has won the toss and elected to field first against Kolkata Knight Riders in Match 27 of the Indian Premier League. Royal Challengers Bangalore make three changes. Shane Watson goes out for AB de Villiers and Samuel Badree comes in for Travis Head. Tymal Mills, the English sensational pacer with a slower ball comes for the Kiwi pacer, Adam Milne. Gautam Gambhir makes one change with Shakib Al Hasan being left out for his national duties and in comes Colin de Grandhomme. Tymal Mills is someone who’s troubled left-handed batsmen largely in his limited domestic career and Gautam Gambhir may have his work out early in the innings in case if he has to face him.

How could we not talk about Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli when we discuss the game between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders?

The Kolkata crowd have always backed their side till the last moment. They are the most emotional crowd in the whole country and they take pride in the achievement of their team. However, the 27th game of IPL 2017 will be a slightly different emotional ride for them. On one hand, they will have their own side, KKR and on the other hand, RCB, which is led by a new-born hero of the country, whose batting the whole country loves. Virat Kohli. The interesting part is that the crowd will have to choose between two of the hottest head in Indian cricket history, Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli. Irrespective of the result of the match, this is going to be the battle to look out for. IPL’s very own Ashes, we may call it.

Gujarat Lions rose to the occasion and caused a major upset beating the Kolkata Knight Riders in their own backyard at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Skipper Suresh Raina played a captain’s knock, leading his side to a well-deserved victory. It turned out to be only Gujarat’s second win of the season, as they chased down Kolkata’s score of 187/5.

After Sunil Narine’s fireworks at the start of the innings and steady knocks by Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir and Manish Pandey, Kolkata Knight Riders have managed to post a score of on the board. Gujarat Lions who have been enduring a poor run of form will now have a real task in their hands to chase the score down.

Twitter was on the edge of their seats, living each and every moment of the game.

Gujarat Lions captain Suresh Raina has won the toss and elected to field first in the 23rd match of the 10th edition of the IPL between Kolkata Knight Riders and Gujarat Lions at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Kolkata has made one change in their line-up bringing in Shakib Al Hasan in place of Colin de Grandhomme. Gujarat have decided to strengthen their bowling bringing in James Faulkner into their line-up. Praveen Kumar also comes into the squad, replacing Shivil Kaushik.

The match will provide an interesting contrast as Kolkata Knight Riders along with Mumbai Indians are the in-form team in the tournament, notching up impressive victories to rank high up in the table standings. On the other hand, Gujarat Lions are enduring a torrid time in the tournament, failing to impress with their performances, occupying the bottom spot in the table. They will have to quickly find a source of inspiration, in order to bring a turnaround in their fortunes. If they fail to do so, they will have to bid goodbye to their chances of qualifying for a playoffs spot. Meanwhile, Kolkata will look forward to carry their momentum and continue with their excellent performances, which will take them one step closer to sealing their place in the top 4.

Rising Pune Supergiant captain Steve Smith has rubbished all such talks of dropping MS Dhoni from the playing XI which many of the criticizers have been saying since the beginning of the IPL 2017.

Dhoni has not been able to convert starts into big innings for his side, scoring just 61 runs in 5 games.

Smith, on Friday, before the match against Kolkata Knight Riders in Pune, while speaking to the press said that MS Dhoni’s poor form is not that big a worry for the team and he expects the former captain to return back to the form soon.

Smith said, “He has been hitting the ball quite well in the end. He is a class player. As they say, ‘form is temporary, class is permanent’. He was playing well in Bangalore and he also hit a monstrous hit. He was looking like he was finding his groove. Hopefully, we will see a big knock from him in the coming games.”

On being asked whether he would like to get Dhoni batting up in the order, Smith jokingly asked, “Do you want him to open the innings?”

He then said, “We will see how it goes. I am not worried about MS. I think he is going to do fine.”

MS Dhoni might be struggling to get his form back with the bat but he cannot be dropped for not making runs. There are not many wicket-keepers in the world who could replace him even if he is struggling to make runs. His contribution as a wicketkeeper in a match is a massive one.

The last time Gujarat Lions and Kolkata Knight Riders met each other, the Gautam Gambhir-led side made a mockery of the bowlers. Chriss Lynn and Gautam Gambhir started the carnage together, winning the match by a massive 10-wicket margin.

The lights now have turned east, towards the Eden Gardens and here, KKR does not get beaten often. In this current form in which the home side is in, it is way too difficult to stop them.

Overall, Gujarat do have an edge above KKR, winning 2 games and losing 1 but history cannot overpower current form. They might have been victorious twice in the last season but what matters now is this year’s run.

KKR have no issues in picking their Playing XI. The team is doing well currently and there is no reason why they should experiment a lot, until someone gets injured. Gujarat, on the other hand, have been not taken many right decisions in this tournament as far as getting the best XI is concerned.

Here we look at the best possible XI which both these teams can come up with:

Gujarat Lions face a mountainous task today to beat Kolkata Knight Riders in their den. Not many teams have been able to do that successfully. And some numbers suggest that Gujarat bowlers have to deal with KKR captain Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa for these two have been playing really well against them.

Let us look at some of the numbers which reveal the game is tilted on whose favour!

1. Going hard at the bowlers early in the innings

This IPL has seen a drastic change in Kolkata Knight Riders’ batting approach. Gone are the days of Gauthappa (Gautam Gambhir & Robin Uthappa) getting them off to a solid start. KKR have made it a point to go hard at the bowlers early on in the innings. Their run-rate this IPL during the Powerplay has been a staggering 9.90 which is the highest among all team this IPL. A conscious effort to be explosive at the top when compared to 2016 where their run-rate in the Powerplay was 7.96.

The KKR skipper is leading the team to this new approach from the front. Attacking the bowlers right from the off, Gautam Gambhir has hit a boundary every 3.6 balls this year in comparisopn to last year where he averaged a boundary every 6.9 balls in the Powerplay. Another telling statistic is his sky-rocketing strike-rate during this stage of the innings which is 148.75 in comparison to 110.94 last year.

2. No more dependency on Gauthappa?

Such has been the consistency of Gautam Gambhir & Robin Uthappa at the top of the order that in 18 of Kolkata Knight Riders’ 35 wins since Uthappa joined them from Pune in 2014; either one of them has top-scored for KKR in the win. While their starring roles in KKR’s wins have continued this season too there is another name who has proven to be as important if not more for KKR – Manish Pandey. The Karnataka batsman is KKR’s top run-scorer with 221 runs being dismissed just once so far this IPL. Opposition bowlers are not safe when Manish Pandey is still at the crease.

3. The Gujarat Lions’ bowling woes

Gujarat bowlers are yet to make a mark this IPL. The rate at which they leak runs – 9.85 runs an over is a testament to their trouble. They are up against Kolkata Knight Riders today who have the best run-rate among IPL teams this year – 9.59. Poor bowling and explosive batting, odds are with KKR for tonight’s clash. Lions’ bowlers have struggled to bowl in the powerplay this year picking just 4 wickets this season.

Their strike-bowler from last season – Dhawal Kulkarni who picked up 14 wickets in the Powerplay least year has struggled bowling at his personal worst economy of 10.20 this year.

Perhaps the answer is to hand the ball to hattrick man Andrew Tye. The Aussie bowled at an economy on 4.66 during the Powerplay in the Big Bash earlier this year.

4. The curse of the southpaws

Both Gujarat Lions’ and Kolkata Knight Riders’ top-order have struggled against left-arm spin. Barring Gautam Gambhir, who is arguably one of the best players of spin in India and Dwayne Smith who treats spinners with disdain, everyone has struggled.

The dazzling Brendon McCullum has been dismissed by left-arm spinners 20 times – highest in the IPL and is closely followed by Robin Uthappa at 19 dismissals. Dinesh Karthik and Manish Pandey are also on the left-arm spin victims list with 15 and 14 dismissals respectively to their name. Maybe Suresh Raina and Gautam Gambhir ought to include Shivil Kaushik and Shakib Al Hasan respectively for tonight’s game.

Gautam Gambhir is an expressive man. He likes to speak from his heart, whether on the field or off it. He sees no boundaries when it comes to defending his player, taking on the biggest of sledgers in the game or even praising someone who he thinks deserves to be praised.

Gautam in his latest column for the Hindustan Times wrote on how he much he love watching Chris Gayle operate on a cricket field. He wrote that Gayle’s approach towards batting is different than many who come from his school of batting. He wrote, “He (Chris Gayle) is a delight for marketing men, broadcasters, and of course us, the lesser mortals, his fans who were not surprised that he reached 10000 runs in this format.”

The Kolkata Knight Riders captain further said, “How does he do it? Well, the first thing is Gayle’s intent. Most coaches have told me the 4-3-2-1 formula to score runs. It means the first option is to look for a boundary. Second, look for three runs, third option is to search a couple and final one being to at least take a single.

With Gayle, the formula seems to be “think 6–think 6–think 6 again–bloody hell, let me block. Fours, well, let’s see.” My man hates to deal in ones, twos or threes. Most people look (sometimes complain) at the thickness of his bat, but for me the truth lies in the simplicity of the Jamaican’s gameplan.”

Gautam finishes completing his praise on Gayle by writing, “I may not be able to give him company at a pub beyond 1 AM but I’ll be the first person to switch on my TV set at 2 AM if he is batting. He is what the T20 planet craves for, an entertainer.”

‘Glad to see Yusuf batting like this’

In the same column, Gautam also wrote on how Yusuf Pathan has fought with his habit of compulsive hitting and is now a beautiful stroke-maker. He wrote, “I am glad that Yusuf has come out of the compulsive hitting mode and is now more judicious in his strokeplay. In the 2015 IPL, he averaged 44.57, and 72.2 in the next season. In the last game against Delhi, it was his sensible batting that bailed us out from 21 for 3. Yusuf often says that our former bowling coach Wasim Akram too had a role to play in his transformation.”

Whenever one reads Gautam Gambhir’s column, it reflects on the other side of his personality. May be he is just too easy to be read when he is playing. His emotions take over his sayings. Rather, his emotions become his expression. Having said that, reading Gambhir in his written words is a different feeling and it gives the real reflection of his character.

“I’m the Special One”. Words which are immortalized in the sporting world forever thanks to current Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho when he said these words announcing himself to the English game when he became the manager of Manchester United. Now Yusuf Pathan, the hard-hitting Kolkata Knight Riders all-rounder has taken a leaf out of Jose Mourinho’s book and called himself a special talent.

Speaking to PTI, Pathan speaking about his abilities to clear any boundaries in the world, said, “It does not matter to me who’s ahead of me (in representing India). I think no one can compete with me. I consider myself as a special talent. have to back my talent. It does not take time for things to change. If I continue to perform well, at some point I will get an opportunity if not today then tomorrow. I don’t want to look at others. My job is to play good cricket and the start has been good this time. I should be satisfied with my cricket and be prepared whenever I get a chance.”

Two weeks into this IPL season, the one clear message delivered is that the popularity of the tournament is intact. Even the absence of star players at the start – through injury or fatigue – hardly made a dent in the spectatorship as packed houses at most venues testify. How the league fares in television viewership will only be known once the ratings are collated. But by all accounts, they haven’t shown much of a dip – if at all. This establishes the robustness of the IPL brand, which remains firm despite all the travails that have dogged it since 2013.

Kolkata Knight Riders have come off an emphatic last over victory against Delhi Daredevils at the Feroz Shah Kotla. The win didn’t come easy for KKR as the pitch wasn’t an out-and-out batting track. While Delhi managed to get 168 on board, Kolkata were in all sorts of trouble, reeling at 3-21. Promoting de Grandhomme up the order as the opener instead of Narine didn’t help Knight Riders as even Uthappa and Gambhir were sent back early in the dugout. It required a well-constructed partnership from Yusuf and Manish, two of the senior most players in KKR to steer the ship first and then be pull off a wonderful win in the end.

Rishabh Pant is a special batsman. There are no two ways about it. India have found a gem of a wicket-keeper batsman in him and it will be a big travesty if he does not become a global superstar. He was on fire again in Delhi’s match against Kolkata Knight Riders by smashing them all over the park, hitting some massive sixes.

As Zaheer Khan’s young Delhi brigade take on Gautam Gambhir’s double-champions today we take a look at the numbers that matter. Both teams coming off confidence-boosting wins and in the upper end of the IPL table. On a hot summer evening at the Feroz Shah Kotla, the IPL’s most balanced side on paper take on the IPL’ s most settled side. Will Delhi’s exuberance of youth get the better of KKR’s team stability and organisation? A steamy battle in every sense of the word takes place in the capital today at 4 PM.

Delhi Daredevils captain, Zaheer Khan won the toss against Delhi Daredevils in the 18th game of IPL 2017 and will bat first against Kolkata Knight Riders. Zaheer says that batting first has always worked for them and they want to continue doing the same. Gambhir also says they wanted to field first which has worked for them in this season. When asked about their chances of making it to the top, Zaheer says that it’s the best chance to go to the top. Gambhir when asked about the same, says they don’t want to focus on the entire championship and will take it just game by game.

History is a very interesting subject. Not many liked it in school. Not many like it in sports as well. Well, sport is one field where history loses relevance pretty quickly and is created very often. But its impact is always there at back of the mind of the player or the team. In that case, you can either ignore it or fight it.

When Delhi Daredevils play Kolkata Knight Riders in the eighteenth game of VIVO IPL 2017, they will have to either ignore the past record or fight it out to improve it. Their past record against Kolkata Knight Riders suggests that Daredevils lag behind by a huge margin in terms of the win against their opponent.

KKR have beaten Daredevils 10 times in 17 games and lost on 7 occasions. What is worse is their home record against KKR. At Delhi Daredevils’ homeground, Feroz Shah Kotla, they have won just 2 games out of 6 that they have played against Kolkata Knight Riders.

The importance of a Delhi Daredevils versus Kolkata Knight Riders clash has become even more important this year after KKR captain Gautam Gambhir expressed his feeling to return to the Delhi camp one day.

When he takes the field on Monday, one would know that what would be going on in Gautam Gambhir’s mind. This is a very weird scenario for Gautam and his fans and cricket enthusiasts had been speculating what goes in his mind when he plays against Daredevils and now, after his statement, they know how he feels.

Speaking about the match, both the teams have some great faces in the squad, in terms of skills and talent. In the past few matches, some unsung heroes have emerged out in IPL 2017.

Do we get to see some more of such heroes? That only time will tell. As of now, lets us look at five players who could leave a mark in today’s game.

Gautam Gambhir: The KKR captain has been in one phenomenal form at the moment, scoring runs at a quick rate for his team. His runs are not helping the team to put a huge score on the board or chase down any target but also providing a solid base to the middle-order. Against Delhi Daredevils, he will have to do what he has been doing in this IPL.

Manish Pandey: One of the mainstays of the Kolkata Knight Riders, Manish Pandey, will have to take up the responsibility of guiding the team home again. He is in good form and he will be required to fire all guns again.

Rishabh Pant: How does it feel to be just 20-year-old and being one of the key players of the team? Ask Rishabh Pant for the answer. The young gun from Delhi has shown his strong character when he scored a valiant fifty after a huge personal loss, death of his father. Pant is important because when he scores, he scores quickly and make no mistake, he can take the game away from the opposition even more quickly.

Corey Anderson: The man of the match in the last game, Corey Anderson has suddenly become a must in Delhi’s playing XI. He can score runs quickly and take important wickets for the team at crucial stages. Good thing is that he is in form and in-form Anderson can never be taken lightly.

Sanju Samson: Another young man from the Delhi camp, or rather, from Rahul Dravid’s unofficial cricket academy, Sanju Samson has shown with a brilliant hundred in this IPL that what he is capable of. KKR should be wary of this young man.

Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knight Riders match is always a special one. The fact that Delhi-born Gautam Gambhir is the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders makes for an exciting sight to watch when the left-handed batsman leads his team against them.

Apart from this, DD and KKR have such good players that their clash is loved by one and all.

Look at these players: Gautam Gambhir, Yusuf Pathan, Trent Boult, Zaheer Khan, Chris Woakes, Corey Anderson. These are champions in their own right. They have made this format their own.

This is why it is always tough to pick the best playing XI for both the teams. Captains Gautam Gambhir and Zaheer Khan will have to go through a great trouble to get their best XI right in this game. Zaheer has Kagiso Rabada and Carlos Brathwaite resting on the bench. He cannot make such quality players sit for a long time.

On the other hand, Bangladesh’s star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan is back with the team and should be playing for KKR in the Monday game against Daredevils. But who would Gautam drop to make a place for him. Going by the form, it should be Colid de Grandhomme.

Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir is leading his side with utmost dedication and undying passion. He has always been a passionate leader and continues to do so in IPL 2017 as well. One thing that sets his apart from others is his the self-critic that he is.

He is very honest about his views, irrespective of whether they feed his ego or not. His Monday column in Hindustan Times, he wrote on how KKR desperately needs to improve as a fielding side. Despite winning back-to-back games, Gautam Gambhir is focussing on improving as a team. He wrote, “For us fielding is an area where we have not been up there and hopefully that is now a thing of the past. I am proud of our group and hopefully we can have another one of those unusual post-game celebrations in Delhi too.”

At the same time, Gautam has a huge respect for the opposition. Speaking on KKR’s next clash with Delhi Daredevils, he said that they cannot be taken lightly as they have Zaheer Khan and Rahul Dravid’s experience on their side. He said, “We’ve reached Delhi for our next game on Monday. And after finishing writing this I’d be heading downstairs for a pool session.

Our next opposition Delhi Daredevils are easily the most talented bowling side in this year’s IPL, a platter with all the variety you could imagine. With Rahul Dravid as coach and Zaheer Khan as captain there is an experience of over 800 international games between them.”

Kolkata Knight Riders beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 17 runs in the fourteenth match of IPL 2017. It is not often that the team easily defends the target in IPL where the grounds are usually short.

KKR have won 3 games out of four now and is slowly moving their IPL campaign to the play-offs.

Let us look at the five high points of the game:

Yuvraj Singh’s quickfire knock: Yes, the powerful lefty from Chandigarh made the KKR bowlers scratch their heads as he hit a 16-ball-26. He failed to win the match for his side but his short stay made sure that the spectators got worth of money spent on their IPL tickets.

Kuldeep Yadav’s battle with David Warner: Young Kuldeep Yadav bowled 13 balls to the SRH captain but the Australian batsman struggled in front of him. He could score just 7 runs off these deliveries before giving his wicket away. It was great to see how Kuldeep foxed Warne on more than one occasion.

Gautam Gambhir’s astute captaincy: Gambhir was too good with his decision making like he has been in IPL 2017 thus far. He held back Kuldeep Yadav’s mystery spin till the powerplay, making sure that Kuldeep had enough over left with him to bowl at dying stages of the game. Gambhir was always agile and on his foot and placed the fielders at right position

In the match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, Kolkata Knight Riders have posted a score of on the board. The score was established on the back of a brilliant innings by Robin Uthappa. With the bowlers which they have in their line-up, Kolkata will be confident that they will be able to successfully defend the score.

Here are the talking points of Kolkata’s batting performance.

Sunil Narine opens the innings again: When Sunil Narine opened the innings against Kings XI Punjab, everyone was surprised. It was not the first time when Narine had opened the innings in a T20 match. He performed the same role for the Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash League. But him opening the batting for Kolkata was seen more as an experiment. With Chris Lynn out injured, it seems as though Narine will be performing the role for much longer and will play for the rest of the tournament, at least till Lynn returns as a specialist opener.

The 14th fixture of the Indian Premier League between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad saw the home side losing the early momentum as they lost out Sunil Narine and Gautam Gambhir at the point when a good partnership was needed.

On came the Karnataka-born Robin Uthappa and the 31-year-old, alongside Manish Pandey, steadied the home cruise and in absolute style. Hitting five boundaries and four maximums, Uthappa literally dismantled everything the visiting side threw at him. Sunrisers Hyderabad, on their part, came close to send him back to the pavilion, but unfortunately for them, replays showed that the ball didn’t slice his bat and they had to go down begging.

Sunrisers Hyderabad won the toss and decided to bowl first in the 14th game of IPL 2017 against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens. SRH captain David Warner took the decision to field first considering that they are good chasers and KKR, too, are good in chasing.

SRH have never a game at Eden Gardens and this might their best chance today. Out of 4 matches they have played at Eden, they have lost on all 4 occasions.

As far as playing 11 is concerned, SRH has brought two changes in form of Bipul Sharma and Moises Henriques. They are resting Vijay Shankar and Mustafizur Rahman. KKR, on the other hand, have rested Piyush Chawla for today’s game and have called back chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav into the playing XI. The idea to have Kuldeep in the playing XI must be backed by the fact that SRH have two left-handers at the top and he could be used to trap them in the early parts of the game.

Kolkata Knight Riders annihilated the Kings XI Punjab in the last game. This was a perfect way to make a comeback after a heart-breaking loss against Mumbai, where they lost the game in the last 4 overs.

KKR captain Gautam Gambhir, himself, is looking in great touch at the moment and is expected to carry his form in the game against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Saturday.

Hyderabad, on the other hand, lost their last game against Mumbai. They are again playing an away game and that too against a side which has a phenomenal record at home. What worries SRH even more is their record at the Eden Gardens.

Sunrisers have played four games at the venue and have lost on all the four occasions. Even if the overall record is to be considered, SRH don’t see any positive. Out of 9 games that both sides have played against each other, KKR have 6 while SRH winning 3 games.

In the end, it all proved to be too easy for Kolkata Knight Riders as they chased down the 171 target set by Kings XI Punjab at the Eden Grounds on Thursday night in their first home game of the 10th edition of the Indian Premier League.

Captain Gautam Gambhir batted through the innings, finishing on an unbeaten 72, to make sure his team were home and dry and was ably supported by surprise opening partner Sunil Narine (37) along with Robin Uthappa (26) and Manish Pandey (25*).

But, the architect-in-chief of the win for the Knight Riders was their premier fast bowler Umesh Yadav. The Vidarbha pacer had missed the first two games of IPL, due to lower back soreness after a long home season with Team India. However, on his return Yadav was right on the money for KKR and led the way for the team with a fine spell of fast bowling to restrict KXIP to 170 in the first innings.

The 29-year old paceman began where he had left off in the test series against Australia, bowling fast and getting good purchase from the relaid Eden Gardens wicket. Bowling the second over of the match, with just his second ball, Yadav managed to beat Punjab opener Manan Vohra’s outside edge with a lovely delivery that climbed and nipped away after pitching. However, the batsman hit back with an amazing pull shot that sailed over the square-leg boundary in the same over.

The eleventh fixture of this season’s Indian Premier League got the better of Kings XI Punjab, as the Gautam Gambhir-led Kolkata Knight Riders chased down the scored of 179 runs with ease.

Winning the toss, the home side, Kolkata, elected to ball first and Punjab’s opener Hashim Amla and Manan Vohra got off to a brilliant start, hitting Kolkata’s bowlers like anything. But in as soon as sixth over, Piyush Chawla bowled out Vohra, followed by the wicket of Stoinis, and Punjab’s innings saw themselves stumbling at that point.

Amla soon lost himself out and the introduction of Umesh Yadav in the bowling attack proved out to be the clincher for Kolkata. The UP-born bowler notched up four wickets, including the all important dismissal of Glenn Maxwell and David Miller, and gave away 33 runs in just allotted four overs. The visitors, however, managed to score a respectable total, as they gave Kolkata a target of 179 runs.

The Kolkata Knight Riders are turning out to be the team to look out in this IPL 2017 so far. Aided by a brilliant four-wicket haul by Umesh Yadav in the 1st innings, Gautam Gambhir and shockingly, Sunil Narine the openers, gave a perfect start of 76/0 in the Powerplay overs from where Kings XI Punjab could never look back from.

Choosing to field first after having an interesting day on Twitter earlier in the morning, Gautam Gambhir had brought in Colin de Grandhomme for the injured Chris Lynn and Umesh Yadav came back in for Ankit Rajpoot. While Kings XI too got off to a flier, thanks to a quickfire 50 stand between Hashim Amla and Manan Vohra, the middle-order were soon punctured by Umesh Yadav who went on take his best ever figures of 4/33. Sunil Narine was lacklustre in the field, dropping a simple catch and then allowing some overthrows but we were not to know, that he would star in the bat.

Sunil Narine is going to be trolled for a very long time. In KKR’s match against KXIP today in IPL 2017, Trent Boult did really well to induce an edge out of Manan Vohra’s edge. The ball was heading straight off the top edge and was going straight into the hands of third man. But Sunil Narine had different plans. He simply put down the most simplest of catches that anyone could get.

This could get really risky for Kolkata as Manan Vohra and Hashim Amla were in full flow earlier and with a catch being dropped, things doesn’t get easier for Gautam Gambhir on the field. Here’s the video that shows Sunil’s expensive drop.

Kings XI Punjab have had a brilliant start to the 10th edition of the IPL. Their back-to-back victories in Indore has given the Punjab camp a real boost that this season could finally be the one, where they could go all the way and capture the beautiful IPL crown. Kolkata Knight Riders on the other hand, have had a mixed start to the campaign. After handing a devastating defeat to the Gujarat Lions in Rajkot, their poor fielding in Mumbai cost them the second match against the Mumbai Indians, On top of that, they have been hit with the news that their star batsman Chris Lynn could miss large parts of their campaign with a shoulder injury.

In what would come as a relief for Kolkata though, Umesh Yadav and Shakib Al Hasan have joined KKR’s training camp and are likely to take the field in their first home game of the season. For Punjab, it will be all about carrying forward the momentum from the first two games.

Gautam Gambhir has established himself as one of the most influential leaders in the IPL. He has completely changed the fortunes of the Kolkata franchise after joining them from the Delhi Daredevils and taking over the leadership. He has led Kolkata Knight Riders to two trophies in the IPL in 2012 and 2014, making them one of the most successful franchises in the 10-year history of the league. Gambhir though has now revealed his desire to return to Delhi Daredevils in the future and end his IPL career at the Delhi-based franchise.

Gambhir played at Delhi Daredevils in the first three editions of the IPL before eventually being bought by the Kolkata Knight Riders. Gambhir though has now expressed his desire to return to his hometown franchise in the future and win an IPL title with them.

Umesh Yadav has joined Kolkata Knight Riders and is expected to play the next game against Kings XI Punjab on April 13 at Eden Gardens.

Umesh Yadav did not play the first two matches for KKR as he was taking break after a long Test season for India where they played 13 matches on the trot with two ODI and one T20I series landing in between.

Umesh posted a picture, announcing his arrival in KKR. The Vidarbha-born bowler is an important member of the Kolkata Knight Riders setup. He has been in one good form at the moment, picking plenty of wickets in the last Test season. He has picked 74 wickets thus far in Indian Premier League. In 2016, he scalped 10 wickets for KKR in 9 games he played.

KKR has been in good form at the moment. They have one game and lost one till now. The loss against Mumbai must be hurting them as they lost the game from a winning position. However, the team this year looks more balanced than the last year. With Umesh’s comeback, the bench strength will only get stronger.

It will be interesting to see who he replaces in the team. If he comes in, it is speculated that either Trent Boult or Chris Woakes will have to sit. Let’s see who captain Gautam Gambhir opts for.

Bollywood actress Shraddha Kapoor and singer Monali Thakur are set to perform at the first KKR game on April 13th. The Kolkata Knight Riders will play their first home game against Kings XI Punjab at the Eden Gardens. With 8 opening ceremonies in all, Vivo IPL 10’s Kolkata debut will have new stars and guests to inaugurate the first game in the stadium. Monali will take the stage at the beginning of the ceremony for 20 minutes. She is famous for her hit numbers “Moh Moh ke dhaage” (for which she won a national award) and “Badrinath Ki Dulhania”. Monali has played in a number of venues with a long list of recorded singles for Bollywood films. Her claim to fame happened after she placed in the top finalists for Indian Idol. She is now a judge at TV reality show ‘Rising Star’.

Following Monali’s appearance on April 13th, KKR’s Gautam Gambhir will hand over a “Spirit of Cricket” token to Kings XI player Glenn Maxwell as a sign of sportsmanship. An audio visual will then take fans through KKR’s illustrious journey of games in one decade of IPL, including their IPL victories in 2012 and 2014 under the captaincy of Gautam Gambhir.

Shraddha Kapoor will appear just before the end of the ceremony for a six minute performance before the field is cleared and the match begins.

The match between Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders promises to be a cracker of a contest. Mumbai and Kolkata are two of the biggest existing franchises in the history of the IPL and also the two of the most successful and popular ones. The contest between the two teams also has a fair amount of hype around it and this encounter promises to be no different.

There will be no shortage of superstars on display in this encounter between the two behemoths of the IPL. One can expect a starry night under the bright lights of the Wankhede stadium and these players could be expected to make a big contribution in this spectacle.

Kolkata Knight Riders are riding a wave of momentum after imparting a devastating defeat on Gujarat Lions in their opening match of the 10th edition of the IPL. Mumbai Indians, on the other hand, suffered a demoralizing defeat at the hands of their bitter rivals Rising Pune Supergiant in the Maharashtra derby. Now, Mumbai Indians will seek comfort in their fortress of Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, while Kolkata will look forward to carrying the momentum gained from the first match.

Openers Gautam Gambhir and Chris Lynn were in devastating form as they massacred the Gujarat bowlers creating the highest opening stand in IPL’s history. But facing the Mumbai bowlers will altogether be a different proposition, with a host of quality bowlers which they have in their squad. Mumbai also have one of the more balanced outfits in the iPL and one defeat to Rising Pune Supergiant doesn’t change the fact that they are capable of mounting a strong comeback in the tournament at any point in time.

Gujarat Lions/Kolkata Knight Riders have won the toss and have decided to field first in the third match of the 10th edition of the IPL in Rajkot Gujarat. Captain Suresh Raina/Gautam Gambhir had no hesitation in opting to field after winning the toss.

The pitch in Rajkot is expected to be flat in nature and a paradise for the batsmen. This could continue the trend of high-scoring affairs in the third edition of the IPL.

The match will also offer an interesting contrast as Gujarat Lions have one of the strongest batting lineups in the IPL, while Kolkata has arguably the strongest bowling lineup. So it would be a fair statement that the match will be a battle between the Gujarat batsman and the Kolkata bowlers.

The 10th edition of the IPL has kicked off in style with run feasts in both the matches played. The matches between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore and Rising Pune Supergiant and Mumbai Indians saw massive scores being put on the board. With the batting lineup of both Gujarat Lions and Kolkata Knight Riders in the third match and a flat wicket in Rajkot, one can expect the trend to continue. Gujarat Lions especially have one of the most destructive batting lineups in the tournament with the likes of Brendon McCullum, Aaron Finch, Jason Roy and Suresh Raina in the squad.

On the other hand, Kolkata has the strongest bowling line-up in the tournament which is more than capable enough of subduing the destructive Gujarat batting lineup. All in all, it provides a very interesting contrast to the match and has all the ingredients to be a cracker.

One of the most followed franchises in the IPL, Kolkata Knight Riders will kick off their IPL-10 campaign against the Gujarat Lions in their home den of Rajkot in Gujarat. The match promises to be a close encounter, similar to the one which occurred the night before between Rising Pune Supergiant and Mumbai Indians in Pune. Both teams have a strong batting lineup but it might well be the bowling which will win either team the contest and it is this area where Kolkata have a visible edge.

Kolkata had a disappointing campaign in the last season of the IPL and due to this and the changing conditions back in their home ground of Eden Gardens of Kolkata, there has been a visible shift in the philosophy of the Knight Riders management. The relaid pitch in Kolkata has offered assistance to the seamers and keeping this in mind, Kolkata Knight Riders have recruited a host of seamers, including two genuine world class bowlers in the form of Trent Boult and Chris Woakes.

Kolkata Knight Riders have announced that New Zealand all-rounder Colin de Grandhomme will replace Andre Russell in their squad for the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League. Russell will miss out on the current season of IPL because he is serving a one-year doping ban from the game.

Grandhomme has had a stunning debut for New Zealand in international cricket, picking up 6/41 against Pakistan in his debut Test match. He is a medium pace bowler but is lethal in conditions which assist the seamer, capable of swinging the ball both ways. He is also a very handy batsman down the order and has a stunning strike rate in T20 cricket of 171 after 91 innings.

Kolkata Knight Riders are arguably the most famous team in the IPL. They have a glamour quotient which is simply incomparable due to their owner being none other than Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan. On top of that, they are based in a city which houses the most passionate fans of cricket in the country- Kolkata. The two-time defending champions will be hoping that with shrewd signings in the auctions, they will be able to become the first team to win three IPL Championships.

Gautam Gambhir is gearing up to lead Kolkata Knight Riders in the 10th edition of the IPL. Ever since taking over the leadership of the team, he has completely changed the fortunes of the franchise, leading them to two IPL triumphs. KKR have one of the strongest core squads in the IPL and will be hoping for another successful season of the IPL.

Now, Gambhir has revealed what he believes will lead the Kolkata-based franchise to another successful season in the IPL. According to Gambhir, Kolkata will need their bowlers to perform at their absolute best to have a good season in this edition of the cash-rich league.

Vijay Dahiya, the assistant coach of Kolkata Knight Riders has joined the long list of people heaping praises on Kuldeep Yadav for his performance in the first innings of the Dharamsala Test. Dahiya has revealed that he wasn’t surprised by Kuldeep’s performance, having closely monitored him at Kolkata Knight Riders. Dahiya also revealed that Gautam Gambhir, the Kolkata Knight Riders captain always believed in Yadav’s ability as a matchwinner.

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